But the best help, after all, is in the personal influence that the visitor can acquire over the growing child. When we think what personal influence has done in our own lives, how it has moulded our convictions, our tastes, our very manner of speech, even, we should not despair of the children, if we can {93} attach them to us and give them a new and better outlook upon life. The time when we can be of the greatest help to them is during the disorganized period that comes between the school days and the settling down in life. Many a young life has gone to wreck for lack of a guiding hand at this time, for lack of a friend to make suggestions about employment, companions, amusements, and home relations. The failure of philanthropy to make any adequate provision for this critical period accounts, in part, for the large number of married vagabonds in our great cities. Collateral Readings: On care of infants see leaflets of local Boards of Health. "The Working Child," Florence Kelley in Proceedings of Twenty-third National Conference of Charities, pp. 161 _sq_. "The Working Boy," the same in "American Journal of Sociology," Vol. II, No. 3. "Child Labor," W. F. Willoughby and Clare de Graffenreid in publications of American Economic Association. "Influence of Manual Training on Character," Felix Adler in Proceedings of Fifteenth National Conference of Charities, pp. 272 _sq_. "Children of the Road," Josiah Flynt in "Atlantic," January, 1896. "Family Life for Dependent and Wayward Children," Homer Folks, volume on "Care of Children" in Proceedings of International Congress of Charities at Chicago, pp. 69 _sq_. Story of "The Child's {94} Mother," in Mrs. Margaret Deland's "Old Chester Tales." "The Wisdom of Fools," Mrs. Margaret Deland (see, for difficulties in reclaiming girls, the story entitled "The Law and the Gospel"). Reports of Conventions of Working Girls' Societies at Boston, 1894, and Philadelphia, 1897. For pamphlets on School Savings Banks apply to J. H. Thiry, Long Island City, N.Y. [1] Proceedings of Fifteenth National Conference of Charities, 1887, p. 152. [2] Miss Z. D. Smith. [3] Proceedings of International Congress of Charities, Chicago, 1893. Volume on "Care of Children," p. 7. [4] Proceedings of Twenty-third National Conference of Charities, 1896, p. 164. [5] "Charities Review," Vol. VI, pp. 433 _sq_. [6] pp. 13 _sq_. {95} CHAPTER VI HEALTH